Raymond Prouty in Merrimack County Superior Court on Tuesday waits for his case to be called. The former athletic director at Southern New Hampshire University was led away in handcuffs after he was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing $1.15 million from the university over 14 years. (Pat Grossmith/Union Leader)

Former SNHU budget director who admitted to stealing $1.15M sentenced

CONCORD — A former Southern New Hampshire University budget director who admitted to stealing $1.15 million from the university over 14 years was sentenced in Merrimack County Superior Court Tuesday morning to serve seven and a half to 15 years in prison.

Raymond C. Prouty, a 1977 SNHU graduate and former assistant athletics director who lives in Hooksett, was sentenced by Judge Larry M. Smukler.

Assistant Attorney General Gregory Ward said after the sentencing that the university's insurance company paid $500,000 of the $1.157 million that was embezzled.

Prouty, who pleaded guilty to felony counts of theft by unauthorized taking and theft by deception, must pay back the entire amount.

Yesterday, he paid $125,000 to the university and is to make $100,000 a year payments until the debt is paid.

Prouty, 58, of Hooksett also named the university the beneficiary of a $1 million life insurance policy as a backup.

One of the indictments accuses him of creating a business called Only the Best OPS, which received money from 2009 to 2012 from the university purportedly to pay people who officiated at SNHU sporting events. Instead, Prouty used the money to pay personal debts.

Prouty worked at the university from 1978 to 2012.

After the university discovered financial discrepancies in May 2012, it hired a forensic auditor who gathered enough preliminary information to report the matter to the Attorney General on June 11, 2012, LeBlanc said.

Prouty was inducted into the university's athletics hall of fame in 2010.